Today, May the 3rd, marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, better known as the "Tokyo Trials".

To honor the occasion, China released a series of books, related to the transcripts of the proceedings. International criminal tribunals were set up after World War Two, to prosecute political officials and military authorities for war crimes and other wartime atrocities.

 These include the Nuremberg Trials in Germany and the Tokyo Trials in Japan. The Tokyo Trials lasted two and a half years, and involved a group of 28 "Class A defendants". However, only 25 of them were actually tried.

"Compared with the Nuremburg Trials, the Tokyo Trials were not as complete in terms of the quality of the trials, participants and judges. There have been so many diverse comments on the rulings. I can only say that the rulings are basically reasonable and fair," said Prof. Manfred Kittle, University of Refensburg.

"The nature of Japan's War of Aggression is quite clear, and the materials presented during the trials had proved the point clearly. Japanese people actually did not know the truth of that war before the Tokyo Trials, and the trials helped them learn the facts and crimes of that war," said Prof. Onuma Yasuaki, University of Tokyo.